Bottoms up.
A custom barrel filled with 42 gallons of the best Kentucky-brewed bourbons arrived at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., Tuesday evening via a “Bourbon Express” bus, according to The Hill, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kent.) along with other members of the Kentucky delegation were its recipients.
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The barrel comes courtesy of the nonprofit Kentucky Distillers’ Association the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship, an organization that dedicates itself to communicating the legacy of “The Great Compromiser” Henry Clay.
The Henry Clay Center says that Clay himself used to have barrels of bourbon sent to the Willard Hotel when he served in Congress to help ease his diplomatic moves.
Mac Riley, a board member at the Clay Center, insisted that this particular barrel of bourbon is meant to jumpstart the “bourbon summit” between McConnell and President Obama.
“This is really about taking all the talk about a bourbon summit between Sen. McConnell and the president, and making it happen — it’s aimed to try to do that,” explained Riley.
Obama himself gave rise to the “bourbon summit” when he said during a press conference following the Republican victory in the midterm election that he would like to get together with McConnell, the new Senate majority leader, over a glass of bourbon.
McConnell has insisted that the bourbon summit will likely take place at some point.
